PLEASANTVILLE – In a speech marked by pointed criticism of American environmentalism, James Gustave “Gus” Speth told regional colleges this weekend “It’s time for a new environmentalism” and for “going back to the ideas of the 1960s and early 1970s, rediscovering their more radical roots, and stepping outside the system in order to change it before it is too late.”

“The environment continues to go downhill, fast,” he told the group. “Bottom line: a specter is haunting U.S. environmentalists — the specter of failure.”

Now a professor at Vermont Law School, Speth made headlines in 2011 when he was arrested and jailed for three days following an environmental protest at the White House.

Echoing Speth’s theme, Michelle Land, Director of the Pace University Academy for Applied Environmental Studies and Director of the Consortium, told the 124 representatives from colleges and universities, “It is our duty in the decade ahead to use our unique resources to transform our region into a world capital of environmental research, education and knowledge. . . Never have our collective talents and resources been more needed. And never has our duty to the future of the human and natural world been more clear.”

Land stunned the audience with an assessment of the size and impact of the region’s colleges and universities which she said number 130, and teach 870,000 students, employ 93,000 staff and faculty, occupy more than 40,000 acres of land and consume more than 20 billion gallons of water annually.

“Collectively, we are the largest community in the Hudson-Mohawk watershed, and the second largest community in the state of New York,” she said.

Speth was presented with the Environmental Consortium’s Great Work Award, in honor of Father Thomas Berry, former Riverdale resident and environmental author, and delivered his keynote address on Saturday.

Senior Fellow for Environmental Affairs at Pace, John Cronin, said, “Professor Speth is calling on us to radicalize or face environmental failure. He sees higher education as an institution that has the talent, knowledge and influence to lead society to success.”

Speth’s message to teachers and students was clear on that point: “We environmentalists can legitimately claim many victories but we are losing the struggle–losing the overall effort to pass our beleaguered planet on to our children and grandchildren. . . My hope is that you can help redesign the university’s approach to environmental studies, and environmental education generally, in a way that embraces the true keys to environmental success.”

About the Conference

Other conference highlights included the opening keynote by David Hales, President, Second Nature, on Friday. Hales spoke about living sustainably in the future climate. He believes that while evidence of climate change mounts, colleges and their communities are not prepared and have not assessed the impacts of climate on their missions, curriculum, infrastructure, operations, students, workforce, investments, and endowments.

“Institutions of higher education have a responsibility to create research-based knowledge aimed at assessing and responding to climate impacts and to prepare themselves and help others prepare,” said Hales.

Plenaries included “Preparing our Campuses for an Uncertain Future” (Fri.) moderated by Andrew Revkin, New York Times Dot Earth blogger and Senior Fellow of Environmental Understanding at Pace; and “The Middlebury Campus as a Learning Laboratory via the Classroom and the Boardroom” (Sat.) moderated by Jack Byrne, Director of Sustainability Integration at Middlebury College.

Revkin pointed out at the end of his panel that it is important to know your audience when framing discussions of climate resilience, because – in the business world particularly — “Not everyone believes climate change is a clear and present danger” but almost everyone agrees that it’s a bad idea to build in harm’s way.

Breakout sessions included discussions of various topics on sustainability in higher education. On Friday afternoon, Professor Ghassan Karam, a Pace University environmental economist, led a spirited discussion of limits to growth in which Liu Mingming, a visiting associate professor of environmental law from Shandong University of Science and Technology, took the stance that developing countries cannot be denied the right to advance their economies. There was wide agreement that the status quo is not sustainable and that universities play a vital role in testing new ideas.

The Environmental Consortium of Colleges & Universities was established in 2004 to advance our understanding of the cultural, social, political, economic and natural factors affecting the region, and currently has 60 member institutions. By promoting collaboration among its members, the Consortium works to provide ecosystem-based curricular and co-curricular programming aimed at improving the health of the regional ecosystem. The mission of the Environmental Consortium is to harness higher education’s intellectual and physical resources to advance regional, ecosystem-based environmental research, teaching, and learning with a special emphasis on the greater Hudson-Mohawk River watershed.

Spearheaded and hosted by Pace University, the Consortium’s headquarters is situated within the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies in Pleasantville, New York. Among Pace Academy’s stated goals is to externally apply the university’s strengths to local and global environmental problems. As a testament to its commitment to interdisciplinary pedagogy, scholarship and service, the Academy provides essential administrative support that grounds the Consortium’s programs.

Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies: Pace Academy is the first of several centers envisioned by Pace University’s President, Stephen J. Friedman, to promote high-level collaborative and interdisciplinary programming in key thematic, academic areas throughout the University. The Academy is a freestanding institute that renews and deepens the University’s long-standing commitment to environmental research, scholarship, and service.

Pace Academy for Applied Environmental Studies builds on its predecessor, the Pace Academy for the Environment, created in 2002 and known for regional leadership spearheading the formation of the Environmental Consortium of Colleges & Universities and serving as the incubation office for the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries, which concentrates on applied technological innovation.

The current breadth and depth of Pace University’s environmental programming is evidenced by globally recognized undergraduate, graduate, and professional degree programs augmented by related curricular, co-curricular, experiential, and service programs centered on the environment.

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